Course Reflection

Reflect on the GAME plan you developed and followed throughout the course.

At the beginning of this course I choose 2 standards that I personally wanted to work on for next school year. The two standards that I choose were:

3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning: Teachers exhibit knowledge, skills, and work processes representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society. Teachers:
• c. communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats

4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility: Teachers understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices. Teachers:
• d. develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools

I then wrote up a GAME plan that would help me work towards meeting those goals. Since our school year was almost over, I am using this summer to continue working on my goal. I am hoping that shortly after the beginning of the school year I can put my plan into action. Setting a goal for myself has really forced me to learn new ways of integrating technology in the classroom.

Summarize any new learning that resulted from your following your GAME plan and explain what impact your new learning will have on your instructional practice.

I really like the idea of the GAME plan. It really helped me focus and I can definitely see how it can be used with my students. Dr. Katherin Cennamo explained how using the GAME plan idea with students, “supports students’ self-directed learning” (Laureate Education, 2009). She went on to explain how it helps students learn to evaluate their actions. Having the students set goals and then having them monitor them will help them so they do not lose focus and will always know what they are working towards. The nice thing about the GAME plan is that if the strategies that are being used aren’t working then you can always change them in hopes to find something that will work.

Describe any immediate adjustments you will make to your instructional practice regarding technology integration in your content area(s) as a result of your learning from this course.

When the school year begins, I will begin by posting all of my newsletters on my class website, as well as sending them out to parents in an e-mail. I am hoping that more parents will be willing to read them if they are in an electronic format. I also want to being the year by talking about pen pals and the idea of using ePals in our classroom. I like the idea of using digital story telling with my kids. I think the first project that I will do with them will be “A Day in the Life of a 4th Grader”. The class in I will create a video which goes through our day that I will play for the parents at Open House. I will also post this to our class website for any parents that cannot make it that night. Having students set their own goals and teaching them how to monitor them will definitely be something I try with my kids this coming year. I have learned so many new things from this class and my classmates that I am going to have to start small and one step at a time. I am famous for overwhelming myself and I don’t want to do that, or overwhelm my students for that matter.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.